Harvard Medical School Annual Bioethics Conference 2019: Controlling Death: The Policies, Practices, and Ethics of Choosing When We Die

April 11-12, 2019

Couldn't join us? Check out the Harvard Gazette's coverage of the event!

• Alvin Powell, "As the end nears, who’s in control?: Center for Bioethics examines physicians’ roles in end of life and assisted dying," Harvard Gazette (April 16, 2019)

Description

The Harvard Medical School Annual Bioethics Conference convenes leaders in the field to explore ethical questions and concerns in health care. Held each April, this conference facilitates conversations among experts and supports members of ethics committees, health care professionals, bioethicists, administrators, attorneys, and others who are interested in addressing ethical issues.

This two-day conference explored ethical, legal, and clinical aspects of evolving practices of euthanasia and physician-assisted death. How ought we to think about the choices of determining the time and manner of death for our loved ones, our patients, and ourselves? How should the health and legal professions respond to these rapidly evolving practices and choices?

Hosted and organized by the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and cosponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Faculty Advisory Committee

• Committee Chair: Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School

• Nancy Berlinger, PhD, The Hastings Center

• Lachlan Forrow, MD, Harvard Medical School

• Linda Ganzini, MD, MPH, Oregon Health and Science University

• Scott Kim, MD, PhD, Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health

• Timothy E. Quill, MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine

• Carmel Shachar, JD, MPH, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School

• Mildred Z. Solomon, EdD, The Hastings Center

• Sigrid Sterckx, PhD, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University

• Matthew K. Wynia, MD, School of Medicine, University of Colorado-Denver

Agenda

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Welcome

• Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School

Legal Contours of Physician-Assisted Death and End-of-Life Care in the U.S.

• Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, Mitchell Hamline School of Law - Legal Update on MAID, VSED, and PSU in the United States

• Brendan Abel, JD, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School - Paths to Legalization and the Massachusetts Experience

• Moderator: Carmel Shachar, JD, MPH, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School

International Legal Perspectives

• Sigrid Sterckx, PhD, Bioethics Institute Ghent - The Regulation and Monitoring of Euthanasia in Belgium

• Britta Van Beers, PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam - The Shifting Limits of Self-Determination in Dutch Euthanasia Law and Practice

• Trudo Lemmens, CandJur, LicJur, LLM, DCL, University of Toronto - Canada’s Constitutionalized Path to Medical Assistance in Dying: Where Is It Heading?

• Moderator: Emily Rubin, MD, JD, MSHP, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital

Clinical Considerations in End-of-Life Care

• J. Michael Bostwick, MD, Mayo Clinic - Coda da Vita: An Argument for a New Life Stage in a Technological Age

• Timothy E. Quill, MD, University of Rochester Medical Center - Responding to Intractable Suffering: Are Palliative Sedation and Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking Enough?

• Laura Petrillo, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital - A Palliative Care Approach to Responding to Requests for Hastened Death

Palliative Care and End-of-Life Options: A Discussion

• Timothy E. Quill, MD, University of Rochester Medical Center

• Diane E. Meier, MD, Center to Advance Palliative Care and Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai

• Moderator: Vicki Jackson, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital

Family Advocacy for Physician-Assisted Death

• Daniel Diaz - Brittany Maynard’s Perspective on Medical Aid-in-Dying

• Marcia Angell, MD, Harvard Medical School - Personal Reflections

• Moderator: Mildred Z. Solomon, EdD, The Hastings Center

Friday, April 12, 2019

End-of-Life Practice: Data, Implementation, and Variability

• Nancy Berlinger, PhD, The Hastings Center - The Dementia Trajectory and the Ethics of Assisted Dying

• Thomas Strouse, MD, UCLA Medical Center - Decisional Capacity Assessment and Patient Requests

• J. Michael Bostwick, MD, Mayo Clinic - Differentiating Suicide from Life-Ending Acts and End-of-Life Decisions

• Linda Ganzini, MD, MPH, OHSU - The Oregon Death with Dignity Act: More Than 20 Years' Experience

• Mara Buchbinder, PhD, UNC School of Medicine - Access, Justice, and the Implementation of Medical-Aid-in-Dying: Lessons from Vermont

• James Tulsky, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute - What Implementation of a Physician-Assisted Death Law Might Look Like in Massachusetts Hospital Systems

• Ann Gordon, MPH - Medical Aid-in-Dying: Operational Experience and Learnings at Kaiser Permanente, Northern California

• Tracey Bush, MSW, LCSW, Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Aid-in-Dying Implementation: Strategies, Challenges, and Outcomes

• Moderator: Keren Ladin, PhD, Tufts University

Future Considerations

• Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus - The Benefits of Sensitive and Standardized Data Collection Around End-of-Life Options

• Laura Petrillo, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Health System Priorities for Patient-Centered End-of-Life Care

• Lachlan Forrow, MD, Harvard Medical School - Lessons, Challenges, and Next Steps for Massachusetts

• Mildred Z. Solomon, EdD, The Hastings Center - Discussion: Reflections and Challenges

• Moderator: Mildred Z. Solomon, EdD, The Hastings Center

Closing Remarks

• Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School

​How to Participate

Registration is required for this event at a cost of $50 for two days of programing. Register now!

Learn More

Check out past Annual Bioethics Conferences!

• 2018: Defining Death: Organ Transplantation and the 50-Year Legacy of the Harvard Report on "Brain Death"

• 2017: The Ethics of "Making Babies"

• 2016: Social Justice and Ethics Committees in Health Care

Tags

aging   bioethics   doctor patient relationship   end of life   health law policy   medicine   public health   regulation